The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-11-12

Aultci pOiiiout AoiCchduOWAk Alc rldu6ulCf VI
the morrow, the fatal 4th of May, possesses
peculiar interest. Spies wrote:
REyENGEi REvENGEi
woRKMES. TO ARMsl
Men Of labor, this afternoon the bloodhounds
of your oppressors murdered six of your broth
ers at McCormick's. Why did they murder
with the lot which your oppressors have as
signed to them. They demanded bread and
they gave them lead for an answer, mindful Of
the fact that thus people are most effectively
silenced You have for many, many years en-
dured every humiliation without protest; have
drudged from early in the morning till late at
night have suffered all sorts Of privati0ns, have
even sacrificed your children. You have done
everything to I'LL the Golfers OF your masters
everything for them; and now, when you ap-
proach them and implore them TO make your bur-
den little lighter, as a reward for your sacrifices
they send their bloodhounds-the police-at you in
order TO cure you, with bullets, Of your dissatis-
faction. Slaves, we ask and conjure you, by all
that Is sacred and dear to you, ayenge the afro
clous murder which has been committed on your
ted upon y0u tomorrow. LabOring men, Her
cules, you have arrived at the erossway. Which
way will you decide? For slavery and hunger or
for freedom and bread? IL you decide for the
latter, then do not delay moment; then, people.
70 arms This must be your motto. Think OF the
heroes whose blood has fertilzed the road to
progress. liberty and humanity. and strive to be-
come worthy Of them. YOUR BROTHERS.
Neebe and other notables of the l. A. A.
took horses, and scattered the circular broad
cast, not failing to leave copies with the rank
and file of the International EARNED sections
gathering in Greifs hall. That the circular
gave the impulse to the action Of the armed
sections at this Monday night meeting, and in
spired the adoption of the plan of bomb
throwing agreed upon, is apparent from the
fact that its contents were first duly discussed.
Then the complete detailed plan was formally
considered and adopted, the time for the
slaughter being left for the Arbeiter Zeitung to
designate by publishing the signal word
''ruhe" .(peace). This feature was the work
of Adolph Fischer, who had come to the meet
ing straight from the Arbeiter Zeitung, where
he had been assisting Spies and Schwab.
A darker picture is not to be found in his
tory than the spectacle of four score mur-
derous conspirators in the saloon basement,
remorselessly plotting the massacre that oc-
cured not hundred yards distant, before
another midnight passed. Rudolph Schnau-
belt, the thrower of the Haymarket bomb, was
among the eighty or more sssassins who COM
posed this horrible meeting.
Though adjournment did not come till long
after III it was not o'clock next morning,
Tuesday, when Louis Lingg, member of this
identical EARNED section opened the chest Of
dynamite that had lain untouched in his lodg-
ings since four days before. Under his expert
directions, six of the men who attended the
murder meeting of the previous night, quickly
set to work filing globular shells with dyna-
mite.
Early as was the hour, Fischer was also at
work getting out the hand bills calling the
Haymarket mass meeting. The hand bills
last words were: "Workingmen. arm your
selves and appear in full fOrce!'
Whist Spies, Schwab and the other leaders
were doing that day may be inferred from the
burning appeals for resistance and calls ITO
Arms!" that appeared in their newspaper
organs that evening. "Ruhe," penned by
Spiess own hand, stared out of the Arbeiter
Zeitung. After the papers were off and their
editors had swallowed a hasty supper, it is
known that Spies, Parsons, Schwab, Fielden,
Fischer and other ruling spirits, mostly mem
bers Of the EARNED sections that held the
Griefs hall conclave, went into close session at
the International headquarters in the Arbeiter
Zeitung building, where reports by messenger
and telephone were received.
Lingg's crew Of bomb makers were assidu-
ously at work. For some reason he himself
was unable to remain with them all the time,
and the evening found him eursing their slow
progress. 1t was some time after 730 p. NJ
the hour mentioned for the Haymarket meet
ing to begin-when Lingg put into little
trunk what bombs were ready-some fifty OF
sixty-and started with his burden for the
appointed rendezvous. an Anarchists saloon
near by, known as Neffs hall. He was met
on the"way by a messenger who had come TO
hurry him along. The trunk was left open in
passage way of the saloon, and without
more ado men began dropping in quietly,
alone or in couples, pocketing bomb OF two
each, and vanishing into the darkness.
Twenty five thousand people, the Anarchist
leaders estimated, would be gathered together
in the Haymarket. But fear of further rioting
kept pretty much everybody at home except
about 1000 men, nearly all of them unmis-
takably Anarchists. Undoubtedly the small
ness of the crowd made the Anarchist leaders
pause. THE social revolution" backed by a
mob Of workmen $4,000 strong had changed to
a prospective fight between Anarchists alone
on one side and the police in force on the
other. 1t was evident to the most casual
spectator in the Haymarket that a hitch ex-
listed somewhere, and apparently the meetings
managers were all completely at sea.
The great dim Lighted square was a decided
ly uucanny scene with its scattered groups of
gesticulating, trampish- looking occupants lin
ing the sidewalks and pouring in and out Of
the rickety surrounding saloons. The Arbeiter
Zeltung conference Of leaders had been pro-
longed one, and when at last Spies, Parsons,
Fielden and the rest reached Haymarket square
they seemed bent on waiting game. II will
probably never be known whether the evident
hesitancy was caused by the delay of Lingg's
confederates, proposed abandonment of the
outbreak, or the hope that the police would
attack and attempt to disperse the dangerous
looking crowd before the speaking should be-
gin, thus relieving the leaders from appearing
to ineite riot.
Finally, an hour and half late, Spies, Par
nj E,alHar aId - eh
order named, using wagon for their rostrum.
The first two, in comparison with their usual
harangues, were tame. Gradually the crowd
thinned out. No police interfered, and the
chance the "reds" had waited months for was
nearly gone. The meeting would be laugh
ng-stock to the public, the leaders would be
discredited by even their own ilk, and the
Ruhe signal would mean not the "social reyo-
luton" begun, but the International Associa-
ton collapsed.
Fielden had been in the background on the
wagon with Schnaubelt, the bomb thrower,
Spies and other directing minds, who saw
plainly that something must be done, and
quickly. Therefore, when his turn came,
Fielden stepped boldly TO the front, discarding
all pretence of mildness. He electrified the
rabble at t'once. The crowd swayed excitedly
backward and forward in the narrow shadowy
confines Of Desplaines street, into which they
had come from the open square, and pressed
eagerly closer to the hickering gas-lamp that
lighted the speakers shaggily- bearded face and
powerful form. When he tragically urged
the wrought-up mob, standing in plain view
of a police station, to "throttle and kill the
law" the disguised officers in the crowd saw
the necessity of prompt action, and word was
was passed to their commander.
Captain Bonfeld, following the plain
directions of the State law covering
such cases, gave orders to have the
meeting dispersed. Seven companies OF
police l75 men. led by himself and Captain
Ward, marched in platoons, extending from
curb to curb, the short distance on Desplaines
street from the station to the speakers wagon.
AS the police approached, Fielden shouted to
the crowd: "Here come the blood hounds.
You do your duty, and I'll do mine." Cap